The present invention relates to electronic devices that can be attached to swimming goggles or other athletic headgear.
Swimming is a sport that keeps people in great shape. Swimming exercises most of the body's muscles, and swimming can even save one's life. For most of competitive sports, it is almost guaranteed that people will eventually get hurt by sport injuries. In comparison, swimming is a sport that rarely causes serious injury. However, like me, most swimmers have bumped their head at the end of the pool while swimming backstroke. While at full sprinting speed, this type of injury may even result in minor concussions, and is also quite painful. It is desirable to design swimming goggles that allow swimmers to see the end of the pool without moving their head while swimming in backstroke. Also, backstroke swimmers often swim in a curvy zigzag path in their lane instead of a simple direct straight line. If the swimmer swims in a zigzag path, then the distance that they swim will be longer, and it also makes them look bad. It is desirable for a swimmer to see the sights behind them while swimming backstroke, so that they may line up their position, thus allowing the swimmer to swim in a straight line. It is also desirable to have swimming goggles that can help swimmers maintain proper head position while swimming backstrokes.
Decorato in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,345 disclosed a swimming goggle equipped with special lens that attaches onto the front of the eye sockets, increasing the user's lateral vision. It, however, does not enable the ability to see behind his or herself, and does not provide wide enough visual range to support backstroke.
Lathrop in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,340 disclosed a pair of comfortable competition goggles with anti fog washing, watertight fits that enhance the eyesight, and improved forward vision that allows the user to see the wall without lifting their head while swimming the crawl, breast, and butterfly strokes. The swimming goggles, however, does not improve backwards vision, and cannot benefit the ability to see the end of the pool without moving their head while swimming in backstroke.
Tagyo in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,822 disclosed an attractively shaped pair of goggles that provide watertight vision, and allow the user to swim faster due to its smooth single large lens. It, however, does not provide the ability to see the wall while swimming backstroke.
Yokota in U.S. Patent Application No. 20060010587 disclosed a pair of goggles that use a contact section that attaches to the area around the eye in the eye socket, therefore, improving the user's field vision. The goggles also prevent light refraction that may cause discomfort to the owner. These goggles may enhance the peripheral vision while swimming backstroke, but it does not give a clear vision of the wall; the swimmers still need to change their normal head positions to see the wall. It also does not use a light reflector.
Desbordes in French patent number FR 2630653 disclosed a swimming goggle that has a backstroke viewing window and a light reflector. The light reflector does not switch position with respect to the front viewing window, and it does not change position depending on the body motions of the swimmer.
Huang in Chinese patent number CN201105124 disclosed a swimming goggle that has a backstroke viewing window and a light reflector. Huang apparatus provides visibility to overhead direction when the swimmer is in position for backstroke, freestyle, and diving in order to avoid colliding with other swimmers in a crowed swimming pool. Huang's apparatus does not address the needs to view different parts of the swimming pool while the swimmer is swimming backstroke versus freestyle.
None of the above prior art swimming goggles comprise electric control mechanisms.
Gear worn by swimmers must be able to withstand strong forces in the water when swimmers are diving, turning, or swimming various strokes at high speeds. The previous application with the Ser. No. 15/275,583 disclosed swimming goggles embedded with an electronic controller able to analyze the actions of a swimmer to provide feedback using voice, music, or by adjusting goggle components. When the electronic controller is built-in as part of a swimming goggle, it is inseparable from the goggle, which naturally allows the controller to withstand forces exerted by the water while swimming. The disadvantage of having an embedded electronic controller in a swimming goggle is that the controller will be useless once the goggle breaks or wears out. It is therefore desirable to have an electronic controller that can be detached from a swimming goggle so that the same electronic controller can be utilized on multiple swimming goggles.
The previous applications with the Ser. Nos. 15/275,583 and 15/291,206 disclosed electronic devices embedded in or attached to swimming goggles. Using motion sensors, those electronic devices are able to analyze the actions of a swimmer, and in turn provide feedback using voice, music, or by adjusting goggle components. Accelerometers are one type of motion sensor that can support such electronic devices. An accelerometer provides electrical outputs that are proportional to the acceleration vector experienced by the sensor; other motion related parameters, such as speed, distance traveled, and Calories burnt can be calculated from the acceleration vectors measured by the accelerometers. However, parameters determined by calculation are often not as accurate as parameters determined by direct measurements. It is therefore desirable to use flow meters to measure speed directly, instead of calculating speed from acceleration measurements.
A flow meter is a meter that measures the velocity of fluid movement. Fluid speed can be measured in a variety of ways. Displacement flow meters accumulate a fixed volume of fluid and then count the number of times the volume is filled to measure fluid speed. Other flow meters measure forces produced by the flowing stream on a known constriction to calculate fluid speed. Fluid speed may be measured by measuring the velocity of fluid over a known area. Athletic headgear can include swimming goggles, eye goggles, sweat bands, hats, or helmets.